Preface The mandate to protect and promote human rights was endowed on the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) in July 2012. The year under review 2017 can be seen as an important milestone in exercising this preventive mandate: the AOB and its six commissions have been committed to protecting persons deprived of their liberty from abuse and inhuman treatment for five years. During this time, over 2,300 institutions and facilities were visited and some 300 police operations observed. Thanks to the unannounced visits, the examination of documentation and confidential meetings with the personnel and affected persons in the visited facilities many deficiencies were uncovered. The overwhelming majority of these can be classified as of a structural nature. These deficiencies are thus not attributable to accidents, carelessness or selective misconduct, but caused by structural peculiarities. The politically competent persons and the supervisory authorities were informed. The Austrian NPM made over 500 recommendations and defined standards – also as a result of international experience – which should be guaranteed in the institutions and facilities. It has been successful in improving protection of human rights in many cases to date. However, in some areas, far-reaching reforms on the political side are necessary which can neither be resolved in the short-term nor implemented quickly. The NPM is doing everything in its power to accelerate these processes. Public support is also necessary to this end. Prevention needs the general public, as information and the right attitude are required. A key aspect of the NPM is thus raising public awareness for human rights. This is done by using a large number of events aimed at different target groups, lectures, cooperation with the media and consistent PR work in an effort to make human rights a topic of discussion and ingrain respect for human dignity in society. That these efforts are already bearing fruit can be seen from the media coverage after the last annual report was sent to Parliament. Various media seized the findings of the AOB and its commissions. There was great concern about the detected cases of maladministration, and the debate on guaranteeing human rights gained new momentum. Human rights violations towards the residents of retirement and nursing homes in particular were at the centre of the public discussion. This report shows once again that there are still grave deficits in retirement and nursing homes that must be rectified as soon as possible. The dominating theme of retirement and nursing homes in 2017 should however not detract from the fact that there are many persons who are deprived of their liberty in institutions and facilities and that these groups of people are at considerable risk of being treated inhumanely. These include children and adolescents, persons with disabilities, detainees and patients in psychiatric wards. Many of the findings of this NPM report refer to these groups of people and do not only highlight the need for action but also point out possibilities for improvement.